Dataset Information

High Resolution Spatial Mapping of Human Footprint across Antarctica and Its Implications for the Strategic Conservation of Avifauna.

ABSTRACT: Human footprint models allow visualization of human spatial pressure across the globe. Up until now, Antarctica has been omitted from global footprint models, due possibly to the lack of a permanent human population and poor accessibility to necessary datasets. Yet Antarctic ecosystems face increasing cumulative impacts from the expanding tourism industry and national Antarctic operator activities, the management of which could be improved with footprint assessment tools. Moreover, Antarctic ecosystem dynamics could be modelled to incorporate human drivers. Here we present the first model of estimated human footprint across predominantly ice-free areas of Antarctica. To facilitate integration into global models, the Antarctic model was created using methodologies applied elsewhere with land use, density and accessibility features incorporated. Results showed that human pressure is clustered predominantly in the Antarctic Peninsula, southern Victoria Land and several areas of East Antarctica. To demonstrate the practical application of the footprint model, it was used to investigate the potential threat to Antarctica's avifauna by local human activities. Relative footprint values were recorded for all 204 of Antarctica's Important Bird Areas (IBAs) identified by BirdLife International and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Results indicated that formal protection of avifauna under the Antarctic Treaty System has been unsystematic and is lacking for penguin and flying bird species in some of the IBAs most vulnerable to human activity and impact. More generally, it is hoped that use of this human footprint model may help Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting policy makers in their decision making concerning avifauna protection and other issues including cumulative impacts, environmental monitoring, non-native species and terrestrial area protection.

SUBMITTER: Pertierra LR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5235374 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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High Resolution Spatial Mapping of Human Footprint across Antarctica and Its Implications for the Strategic Conservation of Avifauna.

Pertierra Luis R LR Hughes Kevin A KA Vega Greta C GC Olalla-Tárraga Miguel Á MÁ

PloS one 20170113 1

Human footprint models allow visualization of human spatial pressure across the globe. Up until now, Antarctica has been omitted from global footprint models, due possibly to the lack of a permanent human population and poor accessibility to necessary datasets. Yet Antarctic ecosystems face increasing cumulative impacts from the expanding tourism industry and national Antarctic operator activities, the management of which could be improved with footprint assessment tools. Moreover, Antarctic eco ...[more]

PMID: 28085889

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Project description:Structural properties of articular cartilage such as proteoglycan content, collagen content and collagen alignment are known to vary over length scales as small as a few microns (Bullough and Goodfellow, 1968; Bi et al., 2006). Characterizing the resulting variation in mechanical properties is critical for understanding how the inhomogeneous architecture of this tissue gives rise to its function. Previous studies have measured the depth-dependent shear modulus of articular cartilage using methods such as particle image velocimetry (PIV) that rely on cells and cell nuclei as fiducial markers to track tissue deformation (Buckley et al., 2008; Wong et al., 2008a). However, such techniques are limited by the density of trackable markers, which may be too low to take full advantage of optical microscopy. This limitation leads to noise in the acquired data, which is often exacerbated when the data is manipulated. In this study, we report on two techniques for increasing the accuracy of tissue deformation measurements. In the first technique, deformations were tracked in a grid that was photobleached on each tissue sample (Bruehlmann et al., 2004). In the second, a numerical technique was implemented that allowed for accurate differentiation of optical displacement measurements by minimizing the propagated experimental error while ensuring that truncation error associated with local averaging of the data remained small. To test their efficacy, we employed these techniques to compare the depth-dependent shear moduli of neonatal bovine and adult human articular cartilage. Using a photobleached grid and numerical optimization to gather and analyze data led to results consistent with those reported previously (Buckley et al., 2008; Wong et al., 2008a), but with increased spatial resolution and characteristic coefficients of variation that were reduced up to a factor of 3. This increased resolution allowed us to determine that the shear modulus of neonatal bovine and adult human tissue both exhibit a global minimum at a depth z of around 100 microm and plateau at large depths. The consistency of the depth dependence of |G*|(Z) for adult human and neonatal bovine tissue suggests a functional advantage resulting from this behavior.

Dataset Information

High Resolution Spatial Mapping of Human Footprint across Antarctica and Its Implications for the Strategic Conservation of Avifauna.

Publications

High Resolution Spatial Mapping of Human Footprint across Antarctica and Its Implications for the Strategic Conservation of Avifauna.

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